Verily, to Him (the Almighty) is the knowledge of the Hour, He sends down the rain, and knows that which is in the wombs. Nobody knows what he will earn tomorrow, and nobody knows in what land he will die. Verily, He is
All-Knower, All-Aware (of things)” (Quran 31:34).

It was Gene Roddeberry who once said that ‘religions vary in their idiocy and I reject them all”. But I contest Gene’s postulation. I argue thus- no religion is essentially idiotic but some religionists could display grand idiocy in their practice of their religions. I guess it is readings such as the above that recent events in this country has eventuated. I refer to events in which as Muslims we are constantly regaled and inundated by ‘prophecies’ about what would happen in the future; ‘prophecies’ from men who ‘know’ the unknown; men who ‘know’ tomorrow.

Indeed they knew tomorrow. They spoke about it. Yesterday. The unknown. They spoke about yesterday at a time yesterday was unknown. “God told me expressly”, he pontificated, “that APC is finished in Nigeria …and) you will see how God will disgrace them … They will lose heavily”.

Yet there has been another ‘prophecy’ from another ‘Prophet’. Suddenly, it feels as if we are in a season of prophecy! Another “prophet” has emerged. He has seen the future. He said: “God said APC and PDP should jointly present me in 2019”. Thus the latter ‘prophecy’ is about the self; the former was about the ‘other’. But no matter the target of the ‘prophecies’, these ‘prophets’ always posture to speak for the Almighty. They speak on behalf of Him whose speech is forever true. The Almighty does not tell lies. Whatever He says is the truth. But what happens when their ‘prophecies’ turn out to be false? How might we begin to characterize them since each time they speak for Him, it turns out to be false?

In other words, it is important we remember the ‘prophets’ we are talking about. They are men and women (prophetesses) whose offices are located sometimes in the mosques but most times in the cathedral. They are like the sheep – gentle, meek, unassuming and totally innocuous. Handsome men. Beautiful women. Whenever they appear on the podium, they appear like actors and actress; men and women in the entertainment industry. Whenever they talk, the souls of the flock, the worshippers, are entranced. Their sermons are like thunder. Tongues coated with sugar-sweet to the mind, sweet to ‘taste’.

But they are also ravening like wolves. They destroy and devour. They destroy what they cannot create; they destroy that which is most subtle, that which is most dear to the Almighty – the human soul. Whenever those who minister on behalf of God begin to act like Him, they become modern day idols – idols to which libations must be poured before humans could reach the Almighty. These are people who purport to create conscience for those who lack one and end up corrupting those who have one. Whenever they speak, it feels as if they are the ones that get consulted before the Almighty carry out His will. These are ‘kidnappers’; ‘kidnappers’ of human souls. They are ‘kidnappers’ of uncanny chemistry- they kidnap the truth, they render asunder peace and harmony.

But reference to these false prophets as kidnappers might be true only to an extent. This is because unlike the ‘other’ kidnappers, the false prophets do not use physical violence while carrying out their ungodly activities. Rather, it is the ‘kidnapped’, my dupable compatriots, who usually present themselves for ‘kidnap’. These are feckless compatriots of mine who constantly give plaudits, through their sheepish practice of their faith to Karl Marx’s opinion that ‘religion is the opium of the people’. Whenever they hear of the falsehood in their ‘prophets’ postulations, they quickly kneel in obeisance to their tomfoolery and pray not for rescue from the shackles of charlatans claiming spiritual capital but that the Almighty should grant the ‘prophet’ clearer vision in future. “May God forgive Apostle …as per his Ekiti’s gubernatorial election result. May he receive grace to see clearly again”.

Such is the penitence of the ‘kidnapped’. Those with genuine desire to seek the divine but end up giving anti-religion elements in our midst the opportunity to pooh-pooh religions as nothing but substitutes for a malfunctioning brain. Religion, according to the latter, takes away the power of rational decision, and drains people of their free will.

Keep this in mind, if indeed you are a believer in the Almighty, that –“With Him the Almighty are the keys of the unseen (ghayb). No one knows them other than Him. He knows what is on land and sea. No leaf falls but He knows it; nor is there a grain in the darkness of the earth or a green or dry thing but in a manifest Book. (Quran 6: 59).
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